


or by the last light

by whitenoise17



Category: Bandom, Halsey (Musician), PVRIS (Band), Panic! at the Disco, Paramore
Genre: F/F, M/M, Multi, based on the jetset life is gonna kill you, hotel au, just read it okay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-10-11 06:12:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10457229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitenoise17/pseuds/whitenoise17
Summary: Everyone at the Hotel Bella Muerte wants to get away from their old lives. Dallon's driving through the desert when he sees it; Hayley's worked there for two months. Ashley is running away from her small town, and Lynn is just following her lead. Brendon's not sure he even remembers how he got there. Within a day, the five of them meet each other and form a quick friendship, but there's something at the back of their minds telling them that something is very wrong with the hotel. Will they figure the hotel out before they run out of time, or will they only realize it all in hindsight?





	1. darkened nights and violent things

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy this, and please comment if you do! I'm going to update this as often as possible, but since these chapters are going to be long, I can't promise anything. (Also I know I'm on my third summary leave me be)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dallon's POV!
> 
> Chapter title from Love at First Sight by The Brobecks.

Five days. That's how long Dallon had been living in his car, curling himself into the backseat at night and driving west during the day. He just wanted to get to California. Not that he knew what was waiting for him out there, but it couldn't be worse than where he'd come from. Nothing really could. He let his mind wander back to his hometown as he drove through the desert, something he'd sworn not to do. His philosophy on the matter was simple: if he didn't think about it, eventually it would stop haunting him. As long as he kept driving at 80 through the desert, focusing on nothing but the dashed lines of the highway speeding past him, Hotel California playing softly though the radio, and the growing distance between himself and his old life, he could ignore the way his fingers gripped the wheel too tightly, the way he startled every time he heard a noise out in the desert.

 

That wasn't going to work for very much longer, at least not tonight. Dallon could barely keep his eyes open. He needed to find a rest area of some sort, somewhere he could park and hunker down until morning, but he wanted to drive as far as possible before stopping. The fewer nights in the car, the better, because he was really too tall to fit in the back, and it was uncomfortable as fuck. Maybe he could find a motel of some sort? He might be able to afford something shitty, and as bad as that would be, it was still better than sleeping in the car for a sixth night.

 

Dallon got lucky. About twenty minutes later, he saw a faint, neon glow coming from out in the desert. There was an exit leading off towards the light, but it wasn't marked. None of the usual signs that informed drivers of options for food, lodging, and gas were present. It was as if the government had skipped over this exit, like it wasn't even there. Dallon had seen enough horror movies to know that this kind of situation wouldn't end well, but he was so tired, and honestly, if he got murdered, who would even care? Not him, that's for sure. He pulled onto the road and started driving towards the light.

 

A few minutes later, the lights got brighter and started to form themselves into words. A neon sign rose high above a cracked parking lot. Hotel Bella Muerte, Dallon read. The words were written in glowing red, carving through the night sky like a knife. _Beautiful death_ , he translated, whispering the words into the interior of his car. There were no cars in the lot, and, except for the building, the desert was empty. There were no restaurants, or shops, or anything that would suggest this was a normal place. Dallon shivered, feeling uneasy. He got a strong sense that he shouldn't have come, and he was about to turn around when someone came running out of the hotel. He suddenly noticed it was raining, and the drops fell onto the driver's side window as the man knocked on it. Dallon put the car in park and rolled the window down.

 

"Hello, sir, and welcome to the Hotel Bella Muerte. May I park your car for you?"

 

"Thanks, but I can handle it." Dallon started to roll the window back up when the man stuck his hand through the opening, forcing him to keep it down.

 

"Please, sir. I insist." Dallon sighed and got out of the car, grabbing his luggage (a duffel full of clothes and his guitar case) before handing the employee his keys. He cautioned the valet to be careful with the car, then ran through the rain into the lobby. The room was large and ornate, the dark wood walls dripping with gold accents. The area behind the desk was raised, giving the woman sitting there intimidating height. She had bright red dyed hair and thick winged eyeliner, and she gave Dallon the impression she could murder him and he'd still probably thank her for her help. He turned away, looking around the lobby for a second to gather himself before asking her for a room. There was a bar at the other end of the lobby, empty except for a young man nursing a glass of alcohol and tapping his fingers anxiously on the counter. He glanced at Dallon, and Dallon saw that he was beautiful. He blushed and turned back to the desk. The woman - although the more Dallon looked at her, the more she looked like a nineteen-year-old - gave him a questioning look. Her nametag read Hayley, and somehow knowing her name made Dallon less afraid.

 

"I need a room. For the night. Please," he stuttered. He'd said _less_ afraid.

 

"Thirty dollars," she said, smiling slightly. Great. Not only was she terrifying, she was also laughing at him. He reached into his pocket for his wallet. Shit. All he had on him was a twenty, the rest of his money still hidden in his car, which the valet had taken... somewhere. He held up a finger to signal her to wait and ran across the lobby, taking a seat next to the guy at the bar.

 

“I really hate to ask you this, but do you have a ten? I can pay you back, I swear. I left my wallet in my car and it’s raining.” Dallon smiled apologetically. He was worried the other man would just ignore him, but a slow smirk spread across his face.

 

“Only if you’ll share the room with me.” It was an odd request, and definitely not a good idea, but Dallon nodded skeptically. Sharing a room in a creepy hotel with a stranger who possibly wanted to axe murder him and possibly wanted to have sex couldn’t be _that_ bad, could it? It was only one night, after all. “I’m not a serial killer, I promise.” The smirk dropped from his face and he looked genuinely concerned about what Dallon thought of him. “I just haven’t paid for tonight yet and it’s not like I have unlimited money. This way, we both save some cash, and I wouldn’t mind getting to know you a little better.” The smirk was back, and Dallon definitely wasn’t thinking about what that sentence could mean. No way.

 

“Okay, then.” Dallon waited as the man drained his drink, then helped him to his feet. They walked over to Hayley’s desk and paid for a room, receiving two keys in exchange. If Hayley thought anything about the fact that they were sharing a room, she didn’t show it. It probably wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d seen, working in a hotel, Dallon thought. The guy he was sharing with led him to the elevator, and Dallon suddenly realized he didn’t even know his name. They entered the elevator, and the man hit the button for the third floor. Dallon grabbed his arm and he looked up questioningly.

 

“I don’t know your name,” Dallon whispered. There wasn’t anyone else listening, but he felt uneasy with the sound of his voice in the hushed elevator shaft.

 

“I don’t know yours, either,” the man pointed out, his voice sounding challenging, like he was daring Dallon to tell him, which he did. What else was he supposed to do? There was an extremely attractive man staring at him. Old Dallon, the one who went to church every Sunday and never left his hometown, would have run away from even the thought of sharing a room with him, and yet, here he was, whispering his name to a stranger in a silent elevator.

 

“I’m Brendon.” Brendon was whispering, too, and Dallon realized how small the elevator was. Brendon was so close to him, and it would be so easy to lean down and – no. They barely even knew each other, they were only sharing a room in a professional manner, and Brendon probably wasn’t into him. He was probably just imagining the flirting at the bar, and even if he wasn’t, who knows how much Brendon had to drink?

 

Dallon wanted to punch himself in the face. He was in the weirdest hotel he’d ever seen, where everything seemed just a tiny bit off in a way that was utterly terrifying, and he was worried about whether a complete stranger, who might be part of the weird shit happening in this hotel, may or may not have been flirting. Although, it was entirely possible that everything was fine and he had just listened to the Eagles too much on the way here.

 

The elevator creaked to a stop and Dallon practically launched himself out the doors. He needed space to think, space without Brendon in it. Dallon unlocked the room and set his guitar case and duffel on the floor. Brendon dropped his suitcase and another bag next to Dallon’s stuff. Only then did Dallon notice that there was only one bed in the room. “Fuck.” He didn’t mean to say it out loud, but apparently he did (or else Brendon could read minds, which Dallon really, really hoped was not the case) because his roommate looked over at him. “Sorry. I just didn’t realize there’s only one bed. I can take the floor, though, don’t worry. I mean, I’ve been sleeping in a car for five days, so anything’s better than that.”

 

“We could share? I won’t make it weird, unless you want it to be, in which case, I’d be delighted to.” Okay, so Dallon wasn’t imagining the flirting. He told Brendon he’d think about it before grabbing his duffel and hopping into the shower. He’d only bought one truck stop shower the whole time he’d been on the road, and instead just washed any exposed skin when he was in rest stop bathrooms. He probably looked and smelled gross, but hopefully at least the smelling part would change after a quick shower.

 

After cleaning up, toweling himself off, and throwing on a fresh t-shirt and a pair of shorts, he left the bathroom and saw Brendon stretched out on the bed. He was still mostly dressed, but he’d taken off his shoes, socks, and leather jacket and unbuttoned his white dress shirt. His black skinny jeans were extremely tight, and he looked ethereal. Dallon gasped a little, alerting Brendon of his presence. He looked at his feet in embarrassment, but Brendon motioned him over to the bed as he sat up.

 

“So, what do you think about sharing?” Brendon bit his lip, and Dallon was ready to push him back down on the bed and start making out. He was unfairly attractive, and Dallon was angry about it. He just wanted to not have to sleep in his car, and here he was in the Hotel Bella Muerte thinking about fucking a man he’d known for less than an hour.

 

“We could do that, um, if you don’t mind.”

 

“Are you nervous?” Brendon was half teasing Dallon and half seriously asking.

 

“No, of course not!” Brendon arched one eyebrow. “Okay, yes, I’m very nervous. I’ve never shared a bed with a guy before, and honestly, this hotel is really fucking scary and I just don’t know if I did the right thing.”

 

“Did the right thing where?” Brendon asked softly.

 

“I don’t know.” Dallon rubbed at his face, burying his head in his hands and speaking in a muffled voice. “Leaving home. Coming to this hotel. Agreeing to… whatever we’re doing here. Any of it.”

 

“I can leave, if you want. I’m sorry if I forced you into this, Dallon.” Even through his tangled emotions, Dallon heart flipped when Brendon said his name. “You keep the room, I’ll go get another one, okay?”

 

“No, you don’t have to do that. I’m just a little on edge, I guess. This hotel… something about it isn’t right.”

 

“Tell me about it. There are lots of guests here; I’ve seen them in the hallways, but they never say anything, even if you talk to them. I haven’t met one normal person since I got here, except you and maybe Hayley. I’m not sure about her. It rains every night, but the parking lot is always dry in the morning. And there’s no cars, except mine, which is weird.”

 

Dallon cut him off. “Wait, your car isn’t in the lot. It was empty when I got here.” Brendon shook his head and walked over to the window, pointing to where his car was parked. Dallon couldn’t see anything, but he pretended to. His eyes were probably playing tricks on him from the exhaustion, and he didn’t want to worry Brendon. Something about him made Dallon think he could trust him, and it wasn’t just that Dallon wanted to do some inappropriate things with Brendon. He felt normal, in a way that the hotel didn’t.

 

Dallon closed the blinds and walked back over to the bed, taking the left side out of habit. Brendon shrugged off his shirt and stripped off his jeans, climbing into the right side of the bed in only his underwear. Dallon turned over, looking at the wall and trying to ignore Brendon’s presence. He made it hard, though, pressing his body up against Dallon’s back and wrapping an arm around his waist. It wasn’t sexual, though, which made Dallon strangely okay with it. Maybe Brendon was just as starved for human connection as Dallon was. Either way, that’s how they fell asleep, staying tangled together until long after the sun rose.


	2. we used to be half alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hayley's POV!
> 
> Chapter title from Daydreaming by Paramore.

Hayley woke up at 5:07 AM, the same time she had every morning for almost two months now. A quick shower and ten minutes in front of the mirror later, she was ready for another long day at work. It wasn’t that she _hated_ the hotel; it’s just that it made her feel a little on edge, like there was always someone watching her. It was like the rules of reality had shifted a tiny bit to the left, and she never quite stopped expecting them to be where they used to.

 

There were things that bothered her about the hotel, little things, like the name, or the way she had only ever seen one other staff member since she started her job, or how she checked people in but most of them never checked out. If she thought about it enough to add them up, she started to wonder what exactly was going on here, and she knew that if she ever went looking for answers, she wouldn’t like what she found. She had figured out a foolproof strategy not to go that far. All she had to do was keep herself from thinking about anything at all, but that was kind of difficult when she hadn’t left the small square of asphalt that made up the parking lot in nearly two months.

 

She sometimes missed the world outside the hotel so much that she forgot why she was there, and that made her feel worse than a lifetime in the hotel would have. She needed somewhere to stay, somewhere far away from Nashville, and this hotel did the trick just fine. There was nothing here to remind her of her past.

 

That was the only reason she was still here, that and the fact that no one could possibly find her. When you were searching for a girl who’d run away from her home, her family, her _life_ , and never come back, Hayley thought you’d probably look in LA, or New York City, where it was easy to start over since no one knew – or cared – who you had been. They wouldn’t expect her to be in a strange hotel in the middle of nowhere. If they were even looking for her at all.

 

Hayley closed and locked the door to the room she’d been given as part of her wages, and then she made her way back to her usual position behind the front desk. She liked it up there, where she was taller than everyone. It was a nice change from her usual height, less than five feet. Last night a guy who had to be at least 6’4” came in, and Hayley was eye level with him. She liked being the intimidating one for once, even if she still looked like a middle schooler.

 

Something was different in the atmosphere today, and Hayley tried to wrap her mind around what had changed. After exhausting almost all the possible changes to the lobby’s décor, she figured it out. There were people in the lobby; the tall man from last night and the shorter guy who’d been drinking himself half to death at the hotel bar every night since he checked in. Hayley figured he’d have a hell of a tab when he checked out, but then again, if, like the rest of the guests, he never left, would he ever actually have to pay? And if the hotel wasn’t getting any money from the guests, how did it keep the lights on and the water running?

 

Hayley slammed her head down on the desk. She was thinking about things again, goddamnit. A string of curses streamed out of her mouth, but she didn’t even notice that she was speaking until she noticed the taller man looking at her with a concerned expression. She gave him a half-hearted smile and a small wave. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to hold him off, and soon he was dragging his friend (boyfriend? Hayley remembered them sharing a room last night) over to the desk. She sighed and looked at him impatiently. Might as well get this over with.

 

“Hey. You alright?” She wasn’t expecting him to sound so… nice. When was the last time she’d talked to someone genuinely friendly? Probably back in Tennessee.

 

“Yeah. I think so, anyway. I’m Hayley,” she said before realizing that she was wearing a nametag. “But you probably already knew that.”

 

“Dallon. This is Brendon.” Brendon flashed her a smile that looked a little too bright to be real and said nothing.

 

“Nice to meet you both.” They seemed like normal people, not like the other guests, who reminded Hayley of ghosts, only they weren’t dead. She shivered briefly before shoving the thought out of her mind. She settled on the next thing that came to her mind. “Either of you cut hair before?”

 

A few minutes later, Hayley was sitting on the bathroom counter. Brendon was holding a pair of scissors and asking her what she wanted him to do. _Get me out of here_ , she thought, and laughed dryly before instructing him on how to not fuck up her hair.

 

One thing she’d noticed about the hotel since she got here was that the normal rules of inter-personal connection changed wildly. On the outside, she would never even have spoken to Brendon and Dallon, and here she was, letting Brendon cut her hair and talking to Dallon like she’d known him all her life. It was nice, in a way. All the bullshit rules for what you were allowed to say went out the window when there were so few other opportunities for communication in the hotel. Brendon and Dallon shared looks with each other when she brought that up, and she could tell that they both knew something was seriously weird.

 

“ _Mirabilis._ ” Hayley paused. “It means strange, in Latin. I don’t know how I remember that,” she said. “It fits the hotel, though.”

 

“You’ve noticed? The rain, and the cars, and the other guests?” Brendon sounded hopeful, like somehow her agreeing there was a problem would solve it.

 

Hayley almost nodded before remembering that Brendon was holding a pair of scissors very close to her head. “Yeah. I don’t really want to think about it; I don’t have anywhere but here.” She tilted her head when Brendon asked her to. “You’re the only people I’ve met that seemed… normal. The guy who hired me and all the other guests seem, I don’t know, inhuman somehow? It’s stupid.”

 

“It’s not,” Dallon said, and Hayley let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “I’ve felt it, too, and so has Bren.” Brendon gave him a look that made his face turn red. “…don. Brendon.”

 

“So. How do you two know each other?” Hayley was a little jealous, suddenly. Not because she was into either of them, because that would be weird, but because they had… someone. She was floating alone while they were tethered to each other. She couldn’t help but envy that a little.

 

“We don’t, not really.” It was Brendon speaking this time. “We just met last night. We’re both broke, so we decided to split a room. Let’s just say we got close fast.” He winked, causing Hayley to giggle and Dallon to flush a deeper shade of red. “Something about him, or maybe it’s just this creepy-ass hotel, makes it feel like longer than a night, though.” He had set the scissors down for a moment, and Hayley deemed it safe to nod.

 

“I know what you mean. Outside, I wouldn’t let either of you within three feet of me, no offense, much less tell you my deepest thoughts while you cut my hair.” Brendon laughed and snipped off a few more split ends. Two months without a haircut will do that, she figured. At least she didn’t need to re-dye it yet.

 

“What made you come here? To the hotel, I mean.” Dallon sounded curious, like he was really interested in why she ended up in a fucked-up hotel out in the desert.

 

“It’s a long story,” she warned, giving him a chance to save himself.

 

“I’ve got time.” He grinned at how cliché the exchange was, and Hayley found herself smiling, too. It had been a long two months, she realized, and an even longer life before that. Brendon set the scissors down, and as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, she realized she was ready to talk to them. She _wanted_ to talk to them.

 

“It all started in Nashville. I was your average high schooler, I guess, not much to say about that.” She scooted down the counter so the two boys could sit down and leaned against the wall, crossing her legs like small children did. “It was all okay, even pretty good, until the police showed up at my house one day. I was home alone, so I was the only one there to talk to them. At first, I thought they were going to say something horrible had happened, like my parents had died in a car crash or something. It was even worse than that, though, if you can imagine.”

 

Hayley had to stop and take a few seconds to breathe, and neither of them pushed her to continue. She was thankful for that; she didn’t want this to be any harder than it really was. “They didn’t want to tell me at first. They kept saying I should wait until someone was there with me, but eventually I got them to. They said…”

 

She sniffed once, and Dallon put a hand on her shoulder, but she continued. “They said my father shot my mom, that he murdered her. I didn’t believe it at first. I mean, this was the same guy who used to let me eat ice cream for breakfast when my mom was at work early, the same guy who taught me to play guitar. And I’d never really noticed anything wrong between them, I mean, they fought, but so do all parents, right? I felt like it was my fault, like if I’d _noticed_ what was going on, I could’ve stopped it… Anyway, they wanted me to testify. I thought I could do it, I really did, but as soon as I was up on the stand, I froze. I ran out of the courthouse, and I just started driving. I don’t know where I was going, really. I ended up here two months ago.”

 

Neither of the boys responded, and Hayley was glad. She didn’t want any false pity, and she didn’t want them to look at her any differently. That’s why she left Nashville. She’d always be either the victim’s daughter, or the murderer’s.

 

After a moment of silence, Dallon pulled Hayley into a hug. She wasn’t expecting it, and her throat closed in panic for a second before she realized she was safe. Brendon reached out and put an arm around her, and she realized that these were her friends, or the closest thing she had, even if they hadn’t known each other for very long at all. This strange hotel had thrown them together, and now they were stuck.

 

“We should go back to the lobby. I’m supposed to be working.” Hayley pushed herself off the counter and led the boys back to the lobby. Dallon said something about getting back on the road, but every time he was about to leave, he made some excuse. Hayley wondered if the hotel was keeping him here, or if he just didn’t want to leave Brendon.

 

Occasionally, one of the other guests would drift through the lobby, and Hayley would smile and greet them. They never responded; some of them just stared at her, and others seemed like they couldn’t even hear her. Hayley chose to believe that they were just extremely rude.

 

Hayley, Brendon, and Dallon had been in the lobby for close to four hours (there wasn’t much else to do in the hotel, after all) when the doors to the outside opened. Two girls entered, and Hayley sprang to attention at her desk.

 

“Hello, and welcome to the Hotel Bella Muerte. Can I help you?” The girl with short blue hair stepped forward, while her companion, who had long, bleached hair with shaved sides, stayed back.

 

“We need a room for the night and to know where the valet parked our car.” Her voice was unusual, but pretty, and Hayley wanted to listen to her talk for longer.

 

“Thirty dollars a night for the room, and I will check up on the valet and be back in one second.” Hayley didn’t want either of the girls to get worried, so she ran out to the parking lot before they could see the anxiety on her face. The hotel didn’t have a valet, at least not that she’d ever seen. She just hoped she could find the car before whoever was pretending to work here stole it.

 

Hayley was about ready to throw punches when she marched over to the one car in the lot and saw a guy around her age opening the trunk.

 

“Hey! Stop that,” she yelled. He looked up in surprise.

 

“Sorry? I’m the valet, this is kind of my job.”

 

“This hotel doesn’t have a valet. I actually work here; I should know.”

 

“Oh! You’re Hayley, right? We haven’t met. I’ve been here for a while, but I don’t go in the lobby very often.” Okay. A normal explanation. That was good.

 

“My bad. The girls who own the car want to come out and get their luggage.” Hayley leaned against the side of the car. “When did you start working here, then?”

 

“About a year ago. The summer of 1997.” Hayley made her excuses and went back into the lobby, going through the motions of checking the girls in and directing them to their room, but inside she was freaking out. It was 2015.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I like this? I'm not sure. Also, the characters in this are such a random assortment tbh ?? I just started writing and these are the people I had ideas for. I'm starting to figure out more of where this is going, too. Comment if you enjoyed this update maybe?


	3. i'll be fine in the daylight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lynn's POV!
> 
> Chapter title from Ghosts by PVRIS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long and it's a little shorter than the other two, I'm finally starting to figure out more about the plot and I'm planning 15-20 chapters which is a lot, holy shit. Wish me luck

Lynn hadn’t really wanted to leave. Sure, there was nothing she really loved about her town in New England, but it’s not like she felt the need to leave before college. She should have stayed; she shouldn’t have done this to her parents. They needed her there. But Ashley needed her more. 

When Lynn’s best friend called her at two a.m., crying and barely making sense, she hadn’t even hesitated to drive away from her old life and help Ash. Of course Ash could have saved herself, because she was strong and didn’t really need Lynn, but Ash was pretty much everything to Lynn, and Lynn wasn’t about to let her go without ever seeing her again. She couldn’t.

They’d driven south for nearly a day until they reached the hotel. It was somewhere in Georgia, Lynn thought, but she wasn’t really sure. She lost track of the miles as soon as she knew Ash wasn’t being followed that far. 

The hotel was a little scary, if Lynn was being honest. The neon sign read Hotel Bella Muerte, and Lynn wasn’t sure what that meant, but it sounded… off. The empty, cracked parking lot was radiating visible heat. It didn’t look like a good place for two teenage girls to spend the night, especially since Lynn couldn’t see any other buildings around it, but at this point she had been awake for more than thirty six hours and she just wanted to go to sleep. Ashl.ey had been lost in an uneasy sleep for a while now, but Lynn shook her awake when the valet ran over.

“What’s going on, Lynn?” Ashley asked sleepily. 

“We’re at a hotel. I need some rest, and you should probably sleep somewhere besides a car, okay?” Ash nodded and stretched. The valet reached the car and Lynn smiled and gave him the keys, hopping out of the car and dragging Ashley with her. 

When they reached the lobby, they saw a petite girl with brightly dyed hair talking to a really tall man and a shorter guy. The girl jumped to the desk and welcomed them to the hotel, handing them their room keys and heading outside to check on the valet when Ash and Lynn realized their luggage was still in the car.

Lynn smiled tightly at the two men in the lobby. They looked nice enough, but she was always a little paranoid around people she didn’t know well. Especially in shady hotels in the middle of nowhere. The shorter one obviously didn’t pick up on that, because he came over and introduced himself. Lynn froze up. She couldn’t do it she couldn’t speak she was going to-

“Hi, I’m Ashley, and this is Lynn. Nice to meet you!” Thank god for Ashley. She continued chatting to the man (Brandon? Brendon? Something like that) and his friend while Lynn just stood there and breathed. In and out, in and out, over and over again. She was fine. 

The door clattered open and Lynn jumped a foot in the air. It was just the desk girl. Fine.  
The girl looked scared, like she’d seen a ghost running across the lot. Lynn knew the feeling. Sometimes she felt haunted, too, but this seemed to go beyond just fear. Lynn grabbed the other girl’s arm, reading her name tag as she pulled her aside.

“Hayley?” She nodded. “I’m Lynn. Are you okay?”

Hayley hesitated for a second, leaning in towards Lynn before continuing. “I think something’s wrong. With the hotel. I mean, I probably sound crazy to you now, but there’s all these things that don’t add up, and I’m not sure what’s going on here.”

“You work here, though, don’t you? What does your boss say?”

“I don’t think I have one. I haven’t seen another employee since I got hired, at least until I met the valet just now. I just take my percent of the profit once a week and there’s no other reason I can think of to go find… them.”

Lynn shoved down a swell of panic. “That is weird. I think we should try and figure out what we’re involved in. You know, in case it’s bad.”

“I mean this in the nicest way possible, trust me, but you’re not involved, and neither is your friend. You two can still turn around and leave.”

“And you can’t?”

“I don’t have anywhere else to go. And I just feel like I can’t leave without knowing where I am.” That made sense, in a weird kind of way. There was something about the mystery of the hotel, the atmosphere maybe, that made Lynn want to stay and find the truth.

“Ashley and I don’t have anywhere else to go, either. We’re staying.” Hayley sighed and nodded.

“After a night or two, you’ll start to see everything, too. Dallon only got here last night, and he’s already freaked out by it all.” 

“Do you know… him? Them?”

Hayley shook her head. “I only started talking to them recently, actually. I trust them, though. I trust you too. A lot of the people I check in don’t seem, I don’t know, normal. They’re like ghosts. But those two seem like real people, and so do you. I’m assuming your girlfriend is, too.”

“She’s not my- We’re not- Ashley is just my friend.” Hayley let it go with minimal teasing (thank god) and joined Ash, Brendon, and Dallon’s conversation. After a second of recovery, Lynn joined them, too.

After a few minutes of getting to know Hayley, Brendon, and Dallon better, Ashley excused herself under the pretense of getting their luggage. Lynn saw right through that. She could see that Ash was worried about something. She didn’t know what, and that made her worried.

Lynn sprinted across the lot after Ashley. She finally caught up to her at their car. Ashley grabbed Lynn’s arm and pulled her into the backseat.

“What’s going on?” Lynn asked breathlessly. Only part of that was from running across the parking lot. 

Ashley curled into Lynn’s arms, snuggling into the other girl. They had a very hands-on friendship, which only made it harder when Lynn figured out she had a little bit of a crush on Ash. Ash, who had a boyfriend who loved her and parents who would never accept her and Lynn. Ash, who was probably straight. Ash, who would never even know how Lynn felt.

That wasn’t the point right now. There was something going on, and Lynn needed to find out what.

“Are you okay?” Lynn asked again.

Ash shook her head. “I don’t know.” She turned her head so that her face was buried into Lynn’s shoulder. Her next words came out muffled. “I miss home. And I know that’s stupid because it was fucking awful, but I somehow always thought stuff would get better with my family and my boyfriend and everything. I never really realized that escaping meant I couldn’t go back.”

Lynn nodded silently. She understood what Ashley was saying. She missed home, too, but she had Ashley. She could live.

“I know. I miss it, too.”

“I shouldn’t have made you leave. You had a good life. I shouldn’t have dragged you away from it. I’m sorry, Lynn.” Ashley was crying a little. Everything in Lynn’s brain that let her know when something was wrong was going off. She started smoothing Ashley’s hair, half to comfort the other girl and half to make herself feel better.

“Listen, Ash. My life was only good because of you. I couldn’t have let you leave all by yourself. I love you, okay? I’m always gonna be here.”

Ashley breathed in deeply. She was already calming down and putting herself back together. Lynn envied that ability. “Lynn?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you too.” Ash reached up to thread her hand through Lynn’s hair. For a while, Lynn could almost believe that someday they could do this as more than friends. She could almost believe that when Ash said “I love you too” she meant it the same way Lynn did. Almost.

But then Brendon came out to check on them, and they had to attempt to explain that they were absolutely not, no way, shut the fuck up they were not dating. They had to get their bags and go inside and put their stuff away. Lynn was starting to see what Hayley meant about the hotel being creepy, but she wasn’t going to say anything to Ashley. If she hadn’t noticed yet, then Lynn wasn’t going to make her. She could deal with this by herself.

Maybe. At least she could talk to Hayley and Brendon and Dallon about it, because she was fairly sure that they had all caught on to the weirdness of the hotel. She wouldn’t be ruining their perfect escapes.

And besides, two anxiety attacks over the ghost-like woman she could have sworn she saw floating down the hall and another once she was in bed and Ashley was asleep doesn’t mean she wasn’t fine.

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment if you enjoyed this!


	4. under desert skies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brendon's POV!
> 
> Chapter title from LA Devotee by Panic! at the Disco.  
> ((tw for this chapter: drowning mentions!))

The rain was falling again. It did every night, and Brendon was sick of it. How did people fall asleep to this? The drumbeat of the water made him anxious as he lay there, unable to slow his breathing and close his eyes. It was late, gone past midnight and into the early hours where nothing seemed to exist.

 

Not that that didn’t happen at the hotel anyway. He wasn’t even sure how long he’d been here. A week, maybe? It was mid-September when he got there, and he was sure November had come by now. It was cold outside on the few days he ventured out to his car to grab something.

 

That wasn’t exactly the most relevant matter at 3:55 A.M., though. He should be focusing on sleep, not on counting back the days until he got to his arrival at the hotel or on trying and         failing to remember exactly how much rum mixed into coffee he’d consumed that day. (It wasn’t a problem, though. He was fine.)

 

After twenty more minutes of staring at the ceiling, he rolled out of bed and pulled his jeans back on. No point in laying there if he wasn’t going to sleep anyway.

 

The lobby was empty and dark when he got down, and the front doors were pushed closed against the wind. Someone, probably Hayley, had pushed a broomstick through the handles. Brendon laughed a little at the cliché horror-movie attempt. He still checked to see that the door was fully locked, though.

 

Common sense, that’s all.

 

Not having found anything interesting in the lobby, Brendon walked down one of the first floor hallways absentmindedly, running his hands along the textured wallpaper. He reached the small hallway that led back to the pool and turned into it, the automatic lights flickering weakly on as he entered. Brendon ignored the sign that read “POOL CLOSES AT 11 PM” and stuck his room key into the slot. The door opened.

 

The pool room didn’t have automatic lights and Brendon couldn’t be bothered to hunt for the switch, so it was dark in the room except for the rectangles of light shining in through the windows and door. It was a stark change from the brightly lit hallway and it took a second for Brendon’s eyes to adjust.

 

The floor was tiled in opaque white glass that transformed into a deep green when it hit the waterline of the pool. The corner Brendon was standing in contained the door and a mosaicked staircase leading into the pool. Opposite, there were two white lounge chairs and a table. Another corner had an assortment of potted cacti, succulents, and palms in terra cotta pots. The desert poolside aesthetic, Brendon guessed. It’s something he would have expected back in Vegas.

 

The last corner was too dark for him to really see into, so he started carefully rounding the edge of the pool until he was close enough to shine his phone’s flashlight into the shadows.

 

Brendon jumped and dropped his phone on the tile, extremely glad that he’d been holding it with the hand farthest from the pool. He bent down and grabbed it, scrambling to turn the light off as he retreated from the corner.

 

Suddenly, the floor was slipping out from under him and his phone went flying and hit the wall as he fell backwards into the water, making a gigantic splash and soaking the deck. The bottom of the pool touched his back and he pushed his legs down to propel himself to the surface, but suddenly something was holding him under the water. It felt like a hand on his chest, but it was so _dark_ and he couldn’t see anything. He wildly flailed around in an attempt to free himself, but to no avail.

 

So this was what dying felt like. There was even a light shining above the water, and he could hear someone’s voice calling his name as his eyes closed and his limbs slowed until they stopped moving.

 

  * ••



 

Brendon woke up gasping and coughing up water.

 

He wasn’t dead.

 

How had that happened?

 

He saw movement above him, but before he could open his eyes enough to see what, or who, it was, he slipped back into unconsciousness.

 

  * ••



 

“Do you think he’s going to wake up soon?” It was a whisper over his head, a girl’s voice, but he couldn’t tell if it was Hayley’s or Lynn’s or Ashley’s.

 

“What _happened_? Why was he even down there at 4 in the morning?” That was Dallon’s voice; Brendon was fairly certain. He opened his eyes to make sure, though.

 

As soon as she saw his eyes open, Hayley yelled into the distance, presumably to Lynn and/or Ashley. They sounded relieved. How long had he been out? A few hours, maybe?

 

The bed creaked. Dallon was sitting on the edge, careful not to disturb Brendon. “You’re awake.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Do you know what happened?”

 

Brendon nodded. He was silent, lost in thought for a while before he spoke.

 

“You don’t have to tell me– I mean, us– if you’re not ready.”

 

“No, no, I’m just trying to remember… I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk around the hotel. I went into the pool. The lights weren’t on, so I had my phone flashlight on to look around. There was… something in the corner. A girl, wearing this long red dress, except she didn’t look… human. I don’t know how to explain it. Her eyes – they were the same red as her dress, and her hands were too long. She didn’t do anything when I came in; it wasn’t until I pointed the light right at her that she even moved at all. She covered up her face, like she was hiding something. I don’t know.

 

“I dropped my phone, and I went to get it but I was also trying to run away from her. I needed to get away, not even just because I was scared. It sounds crazy but there was, like, this supernatural force _pushing_ me away from her. So I was running and trying to pick up my phone. I slipped and fell in the water.” Brendon fell silent.

 

“Is that it?” Dallon asked gently. He didn’t want to stress Brendon too much, but he needed to know what happened down there.

 

“Um, pretty much. I tried to get to the surface but there was something holding me under the water. I don’t know what it was, because I couldn’t see her anywhere in the water, but it was also really dark, so I don’t… know.” He noticed, suddenly, that Dallon was holding his hand, although he couldn’t remember when that had happened. Maybe he should almost-drown more often.

 

“How long have I been out?” He said, mostly to break the silence, although he was genuinely curious.

 

“Um, about two days? You woke up for a minute or two here and there, but this is the first time you’ve been awake enough to talk.”

 

“Wow. That’s… longer than I thought.” Dallon laughed humorlessly. “How did I get out of the water? I mean, do you know?”

 

“Ash found you. Heard the splash, I guess. The door was locked, but she broke the glass and got in that way. You should talk to her in a minute. She’s upset she didn’t get in there sooner.”

 

Brendon processed this information silently. “Did she… see anything? The girl from the corner?”

 

“No. She didn’t.” Dallon looked sympathetic. He thought Brendon was crazy, of course he did. Who would believe a word of what he just said? Not anyone in their right minds.

 

“Yeah, sorry, I don’t know what was going on with that. Sleep deprivation. Probably.” Brendon was _not_ going to cry and make a fool of himself in front of Dallon. It didn’t matter if no one believed him; he wouldn’t believe himself if he couldn’t recall the fear pulling him away from that thing as clearly as if he was back on the pool tiles.

 

“Hey, it’s okay. I believe you, Brendon. I trust you.” That was all Brendon needed to start actually crying. Fuck emotions, why did they have to come up at the worst times?

 

Dallon looked startled and a little bit uncomfortable with this sudden downpour. “It’s okay, don’t cry, it’s okay…”

 

Brendon tried his best to shut the fuck up and get himself under control, apologizing to Dallon when it didn’t work. He was probably already worried about Brendon, and here he was, crying his eyes out and still holding onto Dallon’s hand.

 

In the absence of all possible other solutions (or just failing to think of any), Dallon stopped sitting on the edge of the mattress and lay down on top of the comforter Brendon was under. He pulled Brendon in so that the shorter boy was snug in his arms and whispered to Hayley that everything was fine and he’d be out in a minute. Hayley looked worried, but she left the room anyway, leaving the two men on the hotel bed, holding each other like the world was ending around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took FOREVER for me to write. I had absolutely no ideas for this chapter until a few days ago, but here it is! It's not even ridiculously short, either. Go me. I might shorten this fic from my original plans (3-4 chapters each) to only 2 chapters per character because it's moving a little faster than I thought, but I'm still not sure exactly how long it'll be. Please, please, please comment if you enjoyed this, and let's all just hope Ash's chapter will get written faster than this one did.


	5. feelings that we hide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashley's POV!
> 
> Chapter title from Drive by Halsey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mostly Gunngipane cause I love them and then a surprise at the end...

Ashley was, understandably, a little bit stressed. She’d just found, and saved, if she thought about it, one of her friends drowning in a swimming pool that he could easily have stood up in. The look in Brendon’s eyes, when she first saw him under the surface, would stick with her much longer than the cuts on her arm from smashing the glass door.

They were lucky Hayley seemed to be the only staff member around, because Ash really didn’t have the money to replace the door. 

Someone could have died, and she was thinking about legal fees. God, she hated herself sometimes. 

“Don’t say that,” Lynn said. She was wrapping Ashley’s injured arm in gauze Hayley stole from a cabinet in the back room.

“Say what?” Ashley hadn’t even realized she’d spoken. It’d been a long day.

“That you hate yourself.” Ashley winced when Lynn wrapped the gauze a little too tightly around her wrist. She was being as gentle as possible, but Ash’s arm was pretty badly scraped up. Nothing too serious, though.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize I said it out loud.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Lynn said, sounding upset. “Listen, you might not care about yourself, but I care, okay? I care a lot.” Lynn finished wrapping the gauze and wiped furiously at her eyes.

“Lynn? Is there anything wrong? Besides the obvious, I mean.”

“No, I’m fine, don’t worry about me. I’m okay.” Well, that was the least convincing answer ever.

“Look, Lynn, someone or something tried to drown one of our friends today and I was a couple minutes away from finding his dead body. Not to be dramatic, but if there’s something you need to tell me, I think you should say it now.”

“Okay, um. Give me a moment.” That was just a little anxiety-inducing. A tiny bit. What if Lynn left her in this creepy hotel, alone? 

Was there a logical explanation for why that would ever happen? No. Was Ashley going to worry about it anyway? Yes.

“You know how I left with you cause you’re my best friend?” Ash nodded. “Well, obviously that’s still true, but that’s not the only reason I came with you.”

“Then… why did you come?” Was there something Lynn was running from, too? Ashley didn’t want that, didn’t want Lynn to have been hurt.

Lynn paused, like she was working out how to say whatever it was, and then all the words came out at once. “It’s because I’m kind of in love with you and I know you don’t feel the same way and I’m sorry but I love you. In a more-than-friends kind of way.”

Ashley needed a moment to process. Actually, more than a moment. She needed time to slow down, or stop altogether, so she could think about what Lynn just said and what she wanted- needed- to say back. But that doesn’t happen outside of movies and suddenly Ash had to bullshit a response to something that had just changed her entire life.

“Lynn, I don’t know what to say; I don’t want to say the wrong thing but I think you’re wrong.”

“Fuck you, how would you know if I’m wrong? I think I know what I feel better than you do.” Lynn got up and started towards the door angrily, grabbing her jacket and shoes on her way out. “Don’t wait for me. I’m gonna get another room from Hayley.”

Ashley grabbed Lynn’s hand with her non-injured one. “That’s not what I meant. I think you’re wrong that I don’t feel the same way. I’ve never really let myself think about us that way, but I love you and I know I want to try.”

Lynn looked confused, like she didn’t believe what Ash was saying and was trying to figure out where the trick was. But she also looked like some huge weight was lifted off her shoulders, and that was good. That was all Ashley wanted.

“I guess there’s only one thing left to say,” Ash said jokingly. That was a lie; there was a lot left to say, but right now Ash wasn’t ready (and Lynn probably wasn’t either). “Lynn Gunn, will you officially accept me as your girlfriend?”

“Yes, Ashley Frangipane, I will.” Lynn laughed, and Ashley realized she really, really wanted to kiss her right then. But it was probably too soon, so she didn’t.

That didn’t stop Lynn, though. She carefully moved Ashley’s injured arm out of the space between them, then leaned down and met Ashley’s lips with her own. Ashley moved so her back was against the wall and Lynn was leaning in towards her and slowly moved her hand to the small of Lynn’s back. She was scared, but Lynn was, too, so it was okay. They were doing this together, and Ashley had already proved to herself that she’d get through anything as long as she was with Lynn.

Neither of them noticed the knock on the door, or the conversation outside when no one opened it. They were too caught up in each other to even notice the door opening, at least until Brendon let out a triumphant yell of “I KNEW you weren’t just friends!”

Ash already regretted saving his life. (Not really.)

“Shut up, pool boy,” muttered Lynn.

“Oh, okay, I nearly die and we’re already making fun of me for it. I see how it is.” He wasn’t upset, though. That was the good thing about Brendon, and one of the reasons why they’d stayed with him over the past few days. He just let everything go, even a near-death experience. Meanwhile, Ashley was still holding onto things that happened years ago.

“Anyway, if you’re done making out, I made Hayley let me in for a reason, and it wasn’t to get made fun of by Lynn.” He got quieter, his joking tone disappearing as he got serious. “I wanted to thank you, Ash. For saving me. And I’m sorry about your arm.”

“It is in no way, shape, or form your fault. It’s fine. And honestly, I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”

“It’s fine. I’m not dead, am I?” He definitely wasn’t. Dead people were usually quieter.

Ashley hugged him suddenly. It was one-armed, because her other one hurt, and kind of awkward, but it was there, and that seemed to fix both of them, at least for a little while.

“Alright, now get out of our room. I wanna kiss my girlfriend again.” Lynn shooed Brendon out and led Ashley towards the bed. They weren’t going to do anything more than kissing; they weren’t ready for that yet, but kissing while lying down was pretty nice, so that’s what they did.

•••

The next morning, Ashley got up before Lynn. She didn’t want to wake her up, so she went down to the lobby alone. She needed to find some food, and the bar was usually pretty well stocked, although Ash didn’t know how that happened. There was nothing there today, though, so she ventured into the back room to look for something she could take back upstairs. Hayley, Brendon, and Dallon were nowhere to be found, which was odd, but not particularly worrying.

Ash opened the door to what she thought was a cabinet, but it led to a hallway she’d never seen before. At this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t been there at all. This hotel was weird, and dangerous, as Brendon had proved. But for some reason she couldn’t leave. There was something keeping her here, pulling her back whenever she thought about finding somewhere else.

Maybe it was just fear, or the need to solve the mystery, but sometimes Ashley thought it was something that didn’t originate in her own brain, something that came from the hotel itself.

The hallway turned a corner and Ashley turned with it. There was something moving in the shadows down the hall. She thought about turning back, but suddenly she couldn’t see the corner she’d turned from anymore. The hotel was grand, but not huge, so she must be almost to the wall. She’d be fine if she just kept walking.

The corridor got darker as she moved through it and she turned her phone flashlight on as she walked, ignoring the voice in her head saying that this was exactly what Brendon did when he went off alone.

She’d be fine.

There was something laying across the floor in front of her, but she couldn’t see what. She walked closer slowly, shining the light across whatever it was until she recognized what was in her way, and immediately wished she hadn’t.

She’d found another body, but this time it was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ash doesn't deserve this someone save her


	6. in the darkest corner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dallon's POV again!
> 
> Chapter title from Goodnight Socialite by The Brobecks.  
> ((tw for death mentions and slight emetophobia))

Dallon was alone in the lobby. It was a good place to be, honestly, because he could think back on everything that had happened over the past few days. He had arrived at the hotel. That was normal, everything was fine. He’d spent that first night with Brendon. They should probably talk about that at some point. But it was still fine. He’d met Hayley and stopped paying for rooms because she really didn’t care. Was the hotel trying to get revenge for him skipping on room fees? Now that would be a funny story. After Hayley, he met Lynn and Ashley. They were both nice, and he was very glad Ash had saved Brendon. What happened with Brendon was what was messing with his head. Something had tried to drown him, something that neither Brendon nor Ashley could see. That was _not_ normal. And then after that, while Dallon was still trying to wrap his head around all the creepy shit that stuck out at him during his stay (especially the drowning), something else had happened that confused him even more.

 

He’d comforted Brendon, which was still within the realm of possibility for him. They were friends, and that was what friends did. Brendon had fallen asleep after a while. Dallon stayed with him, because what if he left and Brendon woke up? That was when the most confusing thing, the thing that maybe scared him the most out of any of this hotel nonsense happened. Brendon woke up and Dallon was still there. And then Dallon kissed him. _Why_ had he done that? He had wanted to for a while, but he was scared and it was never the right time. Well, he probably couldn’t have picked a worse one. If your friend nearly dies you don’t immediately kiss them while they’re still traumatized. It was a bad idea.

 

But it worked out okay. Brendon kissed him back, and he was still kind of in shock about that. Even with the first night at the hotel and all the flirting, Dallon still hadn’t believed that Brendon actually liked him. But, apparently, he did, because no one kisses like that unless they’re into someone. It was a good kiss. Great, really. That wasn’t what Dallon was stressing about, well, not directly.

 

The problem Dallon had now was where to go from here. The circumstances surrounding his relationship with Brendon (was it too soon to call it a relationship?) were weird at best and downright terrifying at worst. When they left the hotel, and Dallon had to believe they would leave the hotel even though he felt like he couldn’t, what would they do? Would he ever see Lynn, Ashley, and Hayley again? Or were they only friends within the walls of the hotel? There was a good chance he wouldn’t see Brendon again, either. What was he doing making out with a guy he would never see after this? He didn’t have the answers to any of that, so his only solution was to sit in the lobby and stress about it.

 

That’s exactly what he was doing when Ashley stumbled out of the door to the back room, close to hyperventilating and unable to form words. Okay. He could do this. Lynn, Brendon, and Hayley were nowhere to be found, but he could handle this.

 

“Okay. Can you tell me what happened?” Ash shook her head. “That’s okay, just breathe, like this.” He demonstrated deep breathing. Ashley’s frantic gasping slowly calmed until she was breathing close to normally. “Better?” She nodded. “Okay. Did something happen?”

 

“There’s- there’s someone back there.” She sounded terrified, and Dallon was pretty useless, but he wanted to make her less afraid. He wanted to help her.

 

“Did they hurt you?” He was trying to be calm, but even he could hear the cold, hard anger in his voice. He was a little overprotective of his friends. He was the same way before he left his old town, fighting anyone who hurt Spencer or Breezy. He should call them, both of them. He missed them.

 

“Um, no. They were- they were dead.”

 

Oh shit.

 

“Do you think you can take me back there? It’s okay if you’re not up to it.” Not that he knew what he was going to do when he got there. But he’d figure something out. Besides, maybe they could figure out how whoever was back there died and prevent it from happening to any of them.

 

“Yes. I can do that, yeah.” She was getting some confidence back, then. That was good. The two of them raided the storage unit below the bar for flashlights and then ventured back through the door. It was dark in the hallway, and Ashley grabbed Dallon’s hand. “It’s back here, I think,” she said, pulling him around a corner.

 

He saw it. He’d never seen a body before. He’d never been to a funeral, never known anyone who died. He had no experience with this, and it was nothing like he’d expected. He was going to throw up, he thought, but he held it down and went over to the body. There was no visible cause of death and he really didn’t want to look farther, so he left it alone and looked around the room a little. Ash was stood in the doorway, ready to run at any second.

 

“Did you see anything? Hear anything? While you were back here the first time, I mean.” The hallway was bare, no evidence of whatever had happened.

 

“There was, um, something moving in the shadows. I could hear it and kind of see it but I couldn’t tell what it was. That’s all.”

 

“Okay. I think we should leave, then, and block off the door when we go. If there’s something back here, we don’t want it out in the hotel, yeah? And then we can talk to the others.” Ashley nodded and Dallon walked over to her. His shoe caught on something as he walked, and he almost screamed out loud before remembering that there was possibly someone back there with him and that the body was pretty far away. It was okay, there was just something on the floor, and he was going to look down in three, two, one- he looked.

 

Everything was fine. It was a leather-bound book that looked like a journal, and Dallon picked it up. How had they missed that before? Well, it didn’t matter now. Maybe this book could help them figure out what happened to whoever was lying on the floor. But Dallon was definitely going to wait to look at it until _after_ they were back in the safe (hopefully) part of the hotel. Right now, they needed to get out. He took Ashley’s hand and walked as confidently as he could back through the door. He was terrified, of course, but he wasn’t going to show it if he could help it.

 

Back in the lobby, Dallon dragged one of the chairs from the breakfast area and blocked off the door. Ashley tied the handle to the cabinet at the bar for good measure. The next step was to tell the others what they found. Hayley was probably awake. Lynn almost definitely wasn’t, according to Ashley, and Dallon had no idea what the fuck Brendon was up to. Hayley it was. They went up to her room and knocked on the door. She answered with wet hair. It was blue now, Dallon noticed. It looked cool, and he told her so. She smiled and let them in.

 

Dallon looked at Ashley to see if she was up to explaining what happened or she wanted him to, but she was already launching into the events of the morning. Hayley looked appropriately shocked and scared and told them they should leave the hotel.

 

“Would you leave?” Dallon asked.

 

“I work here,” Hayley said, like it was final, like it was a reason. When Dallon pointed out she could quit, she shook her head. “I can’t leave. I don’t know why.”

 

Ashley nodded. “There’s something making me stay here, and it’s not just solving the mystery, or that I don’t really have anywhere else to go. Well, there’s Florida, but still. It’s creepy.”

 

Dallon nodded in agreement. But one thing about Ashley’s statement bothered him. “Why Florida?”

 

“Well, it’s that or California to get the beach, and it’s a hell of a lot closer to New England.”

 

“We’re in the desert,” Dallon said. He was very confused.

 

“No? We’re in Georgia, I think.” Ashley sounded equally confused. Was this not a prank?

 

Hayley, who had been listening to the discussion spoke up. “So, I was in Colorado, first of all. But I think I know what’s going on. Remember when you first got here with Lynn, Ash? I went out to talk to the valet and I thought he was crazy so I didn’t tell you guys. But he said it was 1997 when he got here. Last year.”

 

“It’s 2014, though,” Ashley said.

 

“2011 for me.” This was some Doctor Who shit. Maybe Dallon watched too much TV and this was all a dream. But Brendon was real; Dallon knew that for a fact. “So, I think what might be happening- unless we’re all crazy and like mass hallucinating or something- is that this place could exist in a temporal zone? Like, outside of space and time, and it showed up wherever we were for some reason. This place was out in the middle of nowhere on an unmarked exit for me. I don’t know; I watch too much television, but that’s my guess.”

 

“We’re possibly outside of space and time, and people are dying. I think watching too much TV might be a good thing.” Hayley smiled at him as she spoke, and Ash reached out and squeezed his hand. At least he had friends with him for this weird, fucked-up turn of events. “Let’s go tell the others.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update! Hope you all enjoyed it. Also, I made a playlist to get me in the mood for writing this which can be found here https://open.spotify.com/user/amylia27/playlist/23IC60cVdS9R64kVGHuRwa if anyone wants to give it a listen! Please comment if you enjoyed, it makes my day


End file.
